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Saturday, 31 December 2011

A new venue for our new year celebration and it was wonderful to see so many people from our Brown Edge ceilis. The Betley bell-ringers left early to ring in the New Year and we all went out to listen after singing Auld Lang Syne but couldn't hear a single chime – apparently the wind was blowing in the wrong direction! We'll be back at Betley for New Year's Eve 2013 (no, that's not a typo) – see you then.

Saturday, 10 December 2011

It's time to put on your festive dancing shoes, mark up your dance card and get ready to get jiggy as Christmas starts on Saturday 10 December when The Moody Food Ceili Band and caller Collin Higgs play their annual Christmas Ceili at The Old Brown Jug, 41 Bridge Street, Newcastle-under-Lyme, ST5 2RY. Admission is £2 (free before 9pm) and the ceili chaos starts at 9.00pm.

Friday, 25 November 2011

Moody Food travelled up to Grappenhall – the posh end of Warrington – to celebrate Fiona's birthday. This was a bit of a re-match as we also played at Fiona's wedding back in 2003. The hall was filled with a forest of balloons and the children seemed to be having their own private backstage party when they weren't dancing. A great night with great food and we only managed to trip the noise meter three times.

Saturday, 19 November 2011

After yesterday's trip to Ashbourne Moody Food were back on home territory at Meir Heath for another birthday ceili. Autumn seemed finally to have arrieved with the street lamps bathed in mist giving the journey to the hall an eery, Dickensian atmosphere.

The poster reads:

60 years of Dave. From young innocence to questionable style, an array of dodgy haircuts and tash choices, through fatherhood, fancy dress and one too many whiskeys ...

Friday, 18 November 2011

This was our third trip to Ashbourne this year with Moody Food and it's beginning to feel like our second home. We've been playing at the annual Burns night bash at Ashbourne for a few years now along with the Ashbourne and District Pipe Band. David plays the bagpipes with the ADPB which explains the Saltire, tartan, and bagpipes on his cake but not the er... tractor.

Saturday, 22 October 2011

Well this was a first – a town crier to read out a birthday eulogy – but then the hall was full of thespians. Over the years we've built up a little a ceili community and it's great when we see a familiar face amongst the dancers.
Karen had been to two Moody Food birthday ceilis before and liked what she saw and decided to celebrate her 50th in the same way – great cake by the way!

Saturday, 15 October 2011

Congratulations Sue and Brian on your Ruby Wedding Anniversary – 40 years of marriage – an achievement
made all the more impressive to me as I haven't even managed one.
Typically, I remembered to bring the camera but not the all important
battery so we were unable unable to record the celebrations in their
entirety. All was not lost as Sue came to the rescue with her iphone. Her pics are a bit lo-rez, but the grainy, arty look gives them a charm or their own. There were more, but as with the way of things, they appear to have fallen into Internet limbo.

We had a guest caller for the evening – Jason Hill from the band Alf Alfa and the Wild Oats – who calls my favourite comedy ceili dance, Salutation Square Dance. Here's Jason's dances for your Moody Food Dance Card:

Saturday, 1 October 2011

I suppose this must have been a barn dance rather than a ceili
what with all the checked shirts and cowboy hats. We had another great night of dancing and food (I'm so grateful when there's a vegetarian option to the hog roast), individual cakes for everyone, and champagne to toast the good health of the birthday girl. I even managed to persuade Mike and Sylvia to do my favourite dance – Rosa (which they call 'the cuddle dance').

Saturday, 10 September 2011

Congratulations Muriel and Fred on 50 years of marriage. It was only last year that we celebrating their son's silver wedding anniversary (you can see photos of Tim and Tracey's celebration here).

I was pleased to see that Muriel and Fred kept up the family tradition of documenting their life together through the medium of cake and that granddaughter Lucy still has the energy to skip the light fandango and turn cartwheels across the floor throughout the night.

Friday, 12 August 2011

Ceili-disco-tastic! Moody Food travelled down to the JCB Lakeside Club and back in time to the 70s – mirror balls, disco lights, a DJ and stage lights so hot and bright that you couldn't see the dancers.

Here, just for little Louise (who danced all night long), are Sylvia's dances for her Moody Food Dance Card:

Saturday, 6 August 2011

We don't usually like to travel far from home, especially when we have to use a map, but we made an exception for Issy and Ian and set off down the motorway to Long Buckby. The 'dance hall' was a little marquee in a beautiful garden – I much prefer these small, intimate, home made celebrations where everyone seems to actually know one another.

Saturday, 30 July 2011

Another great evening in Ashbourne with Moody Food celebrating the wedding of Lizzy to Jimbo. A hot air balloon floating above the town guided us on our journey there, but it didn't stop us from getting lost once we arrived. We went around the outskirts about three times before we found the secret lane up to the Bowling Club high on the hill above the town – a perfect spot to watch the sun set. Thanks to everyone who danced through the night in spite of the heat and sorry about the Les Dawson moment at the end – Sue broke a string.

Sylvia's dances for your Moody Food Dance Card:

The Snowball
Goatland Square Eight

Strip the Willow

Discouraging Waltz / Ragtime Annie

Polka Off

Circle Waltz

Postman's Knock

The Siege of Ennis

The Gravel Walks / Crowley's Reel

Waterloo Dance

The Siege of Delhi / The Earl's Chair

Old Swan Gallop

Circassian Circle

The Cock 'o the North / 100 Pipers

Who caught the bouquet?

Only phenomenal self-control prevented me from helping myself to the top cake.

Saturday, 16 July 2011

This was our first time at Checkley with Moody Food and in spite of the power cuts we had a great time. The dance floor was packed right up until the witching hour and we also had some impromptu line dancing and a freestyle version of the Gay Gordons to top and tail the evening. No ceili seems to be complete without a hog roast these days – someone needs to create a vegetarian version for me. The auction raised around £1400 for the charity Breakthough Breast Cancer.

Friday, 8 July 2011

You never really know what to expect when you turn up for a gig. As this was at the local Irish centre we were expecting an evening of Riverdance but found ourselves in the the middle of the OK Corral – pistols, cowboy hats and straw bales everywhere.

Saturday, 2 July 2011

A ceili to celebrate the wedding of Stephanie to Richard at the Moathouse on Festival Park in Stoke. This was the site of the old Garden Festival back in 1986 where I was one of the musicians – I wonder how many are still performing. It makes a change to have a decent sized dance floor in a hotel – they're usually just big enough for a couple of bridesmaids to shuffle around their handbags and despite it being a very hot evening we all danced the night away under a starry ceiling.

Saturday, 25 June 2011

Summer finally arrived on Saturday just in time for the Goostrey Rose Festival, which is like Glastonbury, but without the mud. The whole village seemed to be involved judging by the amount of bunting along the street leading us to the festival field with its marquee and maypole.

As it was such a glorious sunny evening we took time to enjoy some of the excellent food on offer – I skipped the hog roast and went straight for the pudding of chocolate gateau, strawberries and cream – before getting down to some serious dancing.

Goostrey is twinned with Elizabethfontein school in South Africa and had invited over a group of children on an exchange trip to share in the festivities. I don't know what they thought of the ceili but they seemed to be having a good time and even managed to add a few moves of their own to the dancing. Sylvia's going to use them at our next gig – perhaps not.

It was a great night and a nice surprise to meet up again with Sarah and Martin. We played for Sarah's birthday dance last year, just up the road in Marthall.

Sunday, 5 June 2011

StringFing completed their June mini Etruscan tour with a gig at The Holy Inadequate. One of the most striking things about the pub (apart from the great beer and friendly staff, of course) is the huge mural painting. I thought that it looked familiar and that's because it's a copy of the album cover 'A Storyteller's Night' by Magnum.

Saturday, 4 June 2011

StringFing were back camping in a marquee at the Etruria Canal Festival again this year. Much better weather and a scorching sun meant that I was reluctantly persuaded to leave my woolly jumper at home.

During a break in playing I bumped into Mike Fisher who takes many of the photos at my Moody Food gigs and bought a mug with one of his canal pictures. It shows Cherry Eye Bridge on the Caldon canal and the horse Badger who used to haul a narrow boat on passenger trips from Froghall Wharf during the 1980s.

Saturday, 21 May 2011

A jolly jaunt for Moody Food down to Knighton to take part in the centenary celebrations of Premier Foods. The proceeds of the week-long festival of events went to worthy causes and were shared between the Midlands Air Ambulance and Help For Heroes.

Dancing was held in a marquee, with the wind doing its bets to uproot it, and with the poshest dance floor we've ever seen. The light is always interesting in marquees for it slowly fades as the evening melts into night.

We're often asked what the difference is between a ceili and a barn dance – well this was definitely a barn dance what with the straw bales, cowboy hats and checked shirts and even some impromptu line dancing. We don't need much excuse to play Bill Monroe's Southern Flavor, but tonight it felt just right.

Saturday, 7 May 2011

This was probably the smallest dance floor that we've ever held a ceili on – we had dancers galloping up the corridors trying to find a little more space. It was so cramped that we had to do some of the dances in relays. There's an Irish tune called Round the House and Mind the Dresser which refers to the days when dances were held in homes rather than halls. We've renamed it Round the Pub and Mind the Speakers in honour of the Victoria on the Square. Thanks to Mike who was much in demand to make up the numbers and still found time to take the photos and to Tom (bass) and Arthur (drums) for halving the average age of the band.

Saturday, 30 April 2011

I didn't have time to look around the wonderful gardens at Consall Hall but the young crowd who came to share the day with Helen and Stephen made up for that loss with some lively and 'enthusiastic' dancing throughout the night (piggybacks in Clopton Bridge). For the man who wanted to know the names of the waltzes that we played, they were Sheebeg and Sheemore by the blind Irish harper Turlough O' Carolan (1670 – 1738) and Give me your Hand by Ruairi 'Dall' O' Cathain (c.1570 – c.1650).

Saturday, 23 April 2011

Congratulations Hannah and Daniel. We remember a very little Hannah having violin lessons from Sue – how time flies. This is a very pretty venue for a wedding, looking out onto Rudyard lake (even though the drive down to it is a bit scary!)

This was also Emma's last gig with Moody Food before she sets off to travel around the world – good luck Em, we'll miss you. You can see what she's up to by following her blog, Roo and Emma's excellent adventure – awesome!

Saturday, 16 April 2011

Moody Food played at Roo and Emma's fundraising / leaving party before they leave to travel around the world volunteering on community projects in Argentina, Peru, India, Nepal and just about everywhere in between. The evening raised around £400 to give to the charities they visit. You can follow their progress across the world on their blog, Roo and Emma's awfully big adventure. Good luck to the both of you.

Friday, 15 April 2011

It all started with a lantern procession through Northwood park and ended up at the parish hall which was decorated with banners and lanterns. Here we had some wonderful food and were entertained with a shadow story, a rather strange ritual involving banging a nail into a man's head (don't try that at home), and the arrival of the snow bear to sweep away the winter – and everyone went home with a vegetable patch box of seeds.

Music was provided by a scratch band comprised of guitar, bass, ukulele, mandolin, fiddle, harmonica, percussion and vocals which performed songs written at a series of songwriting workshops run by Aidan and Steve.Two songs were written by young people from the Changes music group – Rattle, Hum and Strum! – which is how I became involved. We wrote down things we liked about living in Stoke and Aidan knocked them into shape to produce a song. This is what we came up with – Aidan's version was sung to a three chord rockabilly chugalug beat whilst Mary's was slow and dreamy.

It's No Joke, Living In Stoke (Aiden's version)

Morning duck, your dog's looking funny

Can you spare a bit of cash can you give a bit of money
For a big issue seller who's down on her luck
Thanks a million, morning duck
It's no joke when you're living in Stoke
And you can't pay the bills when you're stony . . . broke

The smog has gone, the jobs have too
We import china for the loo
Armitage Shanks isn't quite so flush
Doulton's winged it and Wedgewood's dust
Canals have dried up there ain't no barges
We just keep paying the community . . . charges

Chorus:
Do we recognise the faces, do we recognise the names?
Does the story change or does it stay the same?
Does the story change?
Or do we let it stay the same?

Stanley Matthews is smiling down
On the square with no fountain in the middle of the town
The Reginald Mitchell makes a pretty penny
Never was so much drunk by so many
The statues in the streets look pretty flash
But where is Lemmy and where is . . . Slash?

Chorus

If you ever plan to cycle west
Go round Forest Park, that's the best
Down the Trent and Mersey and the Caldon Canal
Cycle real quick or cruise dead slow
Eat those butties when you're rolling back
But don't get knackered . . . with a flat

Chorus

It's No Joke, Living In Stoke (Mary's version)

Memories all around in this great town
Which turns our frowns upside down
From Sir Stanley Matthews to the pits
From the past to the present and the other bits

It's not a joke living in Stoke
All the people are full of hope
Some are happy some are chatty
Some are funny some have money

From pubs to clubs
From parties to outings
Stoke is great
Even with all the shouting

Wednesday, 13 April 2011

Ceili Crystallographers! Another conference gig at Keele, this time for the British Crystallographic Association. Funny that it always seems to be scientists who book us – doesn't anyone in the humanities like to have a bit of a bop?

Saturday, 2 April 2011

We haven't played at Whitmore for some time so it was nice to be back, especially on such a beautiful spring evening, with blossom everywhere. You really know that the season is turning when you turn up to a gig in daylight. Hog roasts seem to be very popular these days – I wonder if anyone does a vegetarian option :-)

Saturday, 26 March 2011

Thankfully everyone had recovered from their St Patrick's Night hangovers just in time to put on their dancing shoes, mark up their dance cards and to jig-a-jig the night away with Moody Food – and we had four birthdays to celebrate as well. See you all again in June.

Wednesday, 16 March 2011

StringFing's Eve of St. Patrick’s Hootenanny at the KPA at Keele. We were otherwise engaged at our regular monthly gig at the New Inn in Hanley so Spike decided to inaugurate a new festival into the ritual calendar – long may it remain.

Saturday, 12 March 2011

This Saturday saw us up at Gradbach Mill in the Staffordshire Moorlands for the belated wedding celebrations of Natalie and Nick. This was all supposed to take place in December last year, but due to heavy snow the narrow lanes became impassable and it all had to be cancelled at the very last minute.

Nevertheless, it was a brilliant idea to hire the youth hostel at Gradbach and to celebrate their wedding by having a bit of a jig with their friends. These intimate dances always seem to have a special quality that's often missing in larger, more formal celebrations – there's a real feeling that you are among friends and that everyone actually knows each other!

Natalie and Nick will be off soon to Fiji for three years which explains all the grass skirts, Hawian shirts and garlands of flowers. Emma will be there later on this year, so perhaps you will all meet up again!

Monday, 21 February 2011

Unfortunately this was probably our last wedding dance at Caverswall Castle which is a pity as it was a great venue even though the dance floor was very small. Roaming around the rooms upstairs provided a pleasant diversion between dances, although they didn't always offer jenga and twister!